weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

weezl74

yay Leah :T:T:T

Don't forget to post on CFR's wall on FB, I think I'm having a cookalong on my own over there! :rotfl:

Boodle

Thanks for the "pox-tips" xx Doc gave us liquid paracetamol and been smothering them in chamomile lotion. Worst of the spots is over I think but they still have iffy tums and poor eldest was up most of last night.

So I am not sure how much of this dinner I am going to try out. I don't want to tempt them with too much yummy food to have it revisit later on iykwim?

I can't believe how sorted you are Weezl! Well done to you (and anyone else!) being able to be separated from cup of tea and dressing gown before 10am on a Sunday

I think I will try the veggies, stuffing, but have it with Bisto and a sausage pie as I don't think I can face making the whole meal this week after all. I will do the soup first though and made the Xmas Pud yesterday but not sure I should offer that to the girls at the mo...

Allegra

I am about to plonk my pork in the SC - for anyone going to do the same, the apple juice that is in the gravy ingredients is what you should use as the liquid - and then use the resulting juices to make the gravy, rather than the neat apple juice

We are having the pork as the evening meal, and although I have the french onion soup all ready in the fridge, I think I might make mushroom soup for lunch instead, as I don't think there's any way we can eat our way through a three course meal tonight

I also need to make pizzas for the sleepover tonight, and indulge in that traditional Yule pastime of, er, pumpkin carving. I am supposed to make our pumpkin look like Jack Skellington (from Nightmare before Christmas) - should be interesting for someone as "dextrous" as me :rotfl:

Good luck to all cooking today, and remember - PICCIES !!!

Boodle

AS it turns out, the lovely OH picked up a nut-roast mix when he went to get the sausage mix from Asda in case I was too whacked after last night to make everything from scratch. So I have mixed in the 80g cranberries so I feel like I did something:p As we are having that I thought sausage mix in the onions might be too much so drizzled whole onions with balsamic and sprinkled with sugar instead. Got roast pots in and I am going to do swede mash instead of carrots because I found swede that threatened to rot this morning lol.

About to make the mushroom soup now. And am sooooo ready for my dindins now! Looking forward to it all

Allegra

Just checking in to see if everyone is doing ok

We've had the mushroom soup for lunch - I cheated with the croutons as I had some from way back when in the freezer, so pulled those out rather than making from scratch. Anything to get through the day today, I'm afraid - I am still limping about rather than tearing through the house and the task list as I normally would (I don't even have a task list written out today, lol). Soup was nommy, but I thought it was actually nicer before the cream was added in !

Pizza dough made and proving, DD grated the cheese, getting there slowly. The smells emanating from the slo cooker so nice already though - apply pork, is there anything nicer ?

The next round of washing up to follow, then rolling out and part baking the pizzas and carving the pumpkin

shanks77

well i am a bit later in starting than planned but mushroom soup in bubbling away nicely and away to start on pork etc. Hope everyone has a successfull day look forward to hearing about it later xx

Boodle

Well my girls didn't touch anything One is asleep now and the other resting. Me and OH lapped it up tho - mushroom soup was lush (I used 1 tbsp flour in the oat milk I used to replace the cream) and the mixed spice flavoured it just nicely.

The cranberries in the cheat nutloaf worked beautifully so I hope to try out the full recipe another time. We both thought that quantities of everything were spot on

Hope everyone had/has a successful dinner and Happy Hallowe'en/Samhain to everyone x

VenusFlytrap_2

Well I'm late to the party as always, but have just enjoyed a very scrummy late brunch of eggy bread and sausages - served with a cheeky bit of bacon that needed using up too... it is Christmas, after all!

Still on course to serve the main meal early evening, which is usual round here for a Sunday roast - good thing too, as I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer last night, so it's been defrosting all day on the kitchen side. Was a bit worried this morn when I realised, but as it's only a 1kg bird should be fine.

Apart from not having pork, will be doing everything else to plan except the sausage-stuffed onions (not that big an onion fan), roasted carrots (ditto) and going to try the cranberry nut roast recipe done as muffins, then serve that instead of the HM stuffing as an accompaniment. So, might not be the best tester in the world in terms of following the plan to the letter, but will let you know how it works out! :rotfl:

Off to the shops soon before they close to get a few last minute bits, going to attempt Yule log as well and have a go at waffles in the sandwich toaster too, so need to get moving!

Allegra

Pizza bases made and part-baked, the extra duvets and pillows for the sleepover dug out, batteries for various cameras charging (why do they always go on low just when you want to use them ?), Jack Skellington pumpkin carved and pronounced a passable resemblance

I'm afraid I am also gonna go awry with the timings tonight, as we want to eat at 7ish, and DD's friends are arriving at 6, so I have to feed them all and clear up after them first, which means I will not be able to pay that much attention to our food during that time, so will be off in a mo to do as much of the prep-ahead as I possibly can in order to make transition from Halloween to Christmas as smooth as possible

Perhaps that could be a useful addition to a hyper-busy Shirl - a short article on everything that can be done a day ahead in order to make the Christmas morn a little bit more free for things like church, socialising, and preventing Great Auntie Mabel from strangling cousin Jemima ? :cool:

weezl74

we've popped some piccies on facebook

Isom and her mum have gone, replete and happy (I think!)